Weekly Dish

If you come by my house around dinner time and expect to find me slaving over a hot stove these 100-degree, humidity-laden days, you will likely be disappointed. Around here, our evenings tend to look like this: a quick, easy meal, tossed together over white wine and NPR’s Fresh Air, and then, Scrabble.

As a wordy, nerdy, (culinary) bookworm, my love of Scrabble is probably not a mystery. But I really learned to love the game from my great-grandmother, Nanny, who taught me to play. She had one of those fancy, lazy-Susan-esque boards, coated in shiny plastic with neat little cubbies for each letter, upon which she regularly dazzled me with her crossword puzzle-enhanced vocabulary.

Between turns, Nanny was always whipping up something fabulous in her tiny kitchen, so perhaps the combination of delicious food and interesting words is the legacy I’ve always been meant to inherit.

Although Nanny is sadly no longer with us, I can’t help but think she’d be pleased as punch to know that her eldest great granddaughter is carrying on the tradition of loving people through food and, at the same time, soundly defeating them at the game of words. Sorry, David, it sounds like I come by it honestly.

But look at it this way: at least I feed you well in the process.

For a Scrabble dinner date one night a few weeks ago, I put these farmer’s market sweet peppers to work in a salad with some crawfish tails, bacon, goat cheese, and a salty-sweet maple vinaigrette. The quantities are approximate, as with any salad, and the possibilities are endless. Shrimp or grilled chicken could certainly replace the crawfish, and the quantity and variety of veggies is completely up to your personal taste. However you decide to fix your salad, I highly recommend it with Scrabble on the side.

Spinach Salad with Crawfish, Goat Cheese, and Bacon-Maple Dressing

4-6 slices bacon (I like the maple-flavored kind in this salad)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 T. maple syrup plus a drizzle for the nuts
1 T. honey dijon mustard
1 T. balsalmic vinegar
2 T. olive oil
1 T. reserved bacon drippings
Spinach leaves
Sweet peppers (I used two), cut into matchstick-sized pieces
Goat cheese (about 2 ounces)
1 cup cooked crawfish tails (optional)

Cook the bacon in a heavy skillet until it reaches your desired doneness. Remove the slices and set aside. Drain off about a tablespoon of the drippings to reserve, and discard all but a very tiny film on the bottom. Return the skillet to medium heat and add the pecans. Stir, toasting the nuts until they are brown and fragrant. Drizzle with a tiny bit of syrup and stir to coat. Turn off the heat.

In a small bowl, whisk together the reserved bacon drippings, mustard, maple syrup, and vinegar until well-blended. Drizzle in the oil in a very slow stream, whisking constantly until the mixture emulsifies.

Cover two plates with spinach leaves. Top with the peppers, dollops of goat cheese, the toasted nuts, crumbled bacon, and the crawfish tails. Drizzle with the dressing.

The antioxidant-rich peppers and vitamin-laden spinach make this recipe a good candidate for ARF/5-a-day Tuesdays over at Sweetnicks. Head over there to see how other people are eating healthy and staying cool.

Barbara, over at Tigers and Strawberries, has invited food bloggers to participate in an event centered on the uses of a variety of spices. For the first three rounds, I was a passive onlooker, reading the entries and gleaning inspiration from those who contributed. But when she announced the most recent edition, The Spice Is Right IV: It’s Too Darned Hot!, using chiles in any form, I knew I’d have to get off the sidelines and get in the game. We love spicy food around here, especially in the summer. (Mostly because it gives us the excuse to pair our food with very cold, fun beverages.)

But immediately, I was stumped about what to make. You see, my favorite spicy cuisine is Thai, and my favorite way to use chiles is in my attempts to make Thai food at home. But that seemed a rather silly entry for this event because Barbara knows way, way more about Thai cuisine than I do, and if you really want to learn how to make it properly, you should go dig through her archives.

So then I thought perhaps I’d try to find some sort of exotic and unique chile and concoct a new inventive creation all my own.

But, well, the thing about the heat (and, wow, is it ever hot in south Louisiana) is that it makes me crave simplicity. It’s almost as if my palate is lazy too–my tastebuds don’t want anything that’s going to make them work too hard, much like my body doesn’t want me to cook anything that requires my being in the kitchen too long.

So I return to the most common of chiles, the dark green one that grows abundantly in the garden, the one that appears most frequently in my cooking, the ubiquitous jalapeno.

Some people like their food to be either savory or sweet, but nowhere in between, no blurring of the lines. I, on the other hand, fall in the contrast camp. When I snack, I find that I need two–a sweet and a salty–and I like to alternate them (a handful of popcorn followed by some M&M’s, and so on). Perhaps that makes me odd.

But it also makes me a huge fan of recipes like this one, where the flavor (and texture) is all about the contrasts. Spicy, sweet, sharp, tangy, salty, herby, soft, crunchy–this quesadilla has it all. Pair it with a frozen margarita (rimmed with salt, of course), and a handful of lime-flavored tortillas to serve with the extra salsa, and I am one happy girl. Even in this heat.

And, I haven’t even had to work hard–with minimal effort, all the contrasts I need are packed snugly into one, crispy tortilla. What more could my taste buds ask for?

Blue Cheese and Mango Quesadillas with Mango Salsa
–inspired by a recipe in The Cheese Lover’s Cookbook and Guide by Paula Lambert

2 ripe mangoes, pitted and peeled
2 T. red onion, finely chopped
4 T. bell or banana pepper, finely chopped (I used one purple bell and half of a yellow banana)
1 jalapeno chile, minced (and seeded if you prefer less kick)
2 T. cilantro leaves, chopped plus a few extra leaves
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 t. Kosher salt
1/8 t. cracked black pepper
4 small flour tortillas
4 ounces blue cheese
Olive oil

In a small bowl, toss together the red onion, peppers, chile, cilantro, and lime juice. Dice one of the mangoes and gently mix it in. Finish with salt and pepper and set aside.

Slice the remaining mango into wedges, and have them, the extra cilantro leaves, and the blue cheese handy.

Heat a drizzle of olive oil (just enough to coat the surface) in a heavy skillet over medium heat. When hot, add a tortilla. Cook until the bottom is crisp and brown, and flip it over. Crumble 1/4 of the blue cheese on the surface. Lay 5 slices of mango on top of the blue cheese, and place a cilantro leaf between each of the mango spikes.

Continue to cook until the cheese is melted. Remove to a plate, top with a spoonful of salsa, and repeat the process for the remaining 3 tortillas. To eat, fold the tortillas in half and dig in! Oh, and don’t forget the margaritas. Serves 2 as a light meal.

Notes: You may have to add oil between quesadillas; a dry skillet will burn your tortillas in a hurry. And, you can, of course, go ahead and fold the quesadillas over while they’re in the skillet as you normally would. But, I think they look so pretty served open faced, and if you add the salsa before you fold them, then you don’t have to worry about making sure you get everything on your fork before you take a bite. Less work even in the eating!

This month’s Paper Chef competition, hosted by fellow southerner Kevin at Seriously Good, happened to fall on July 4th weekend. In honor of that timing, Kevin decided that, in addition to the three randomly chosen ingredients,–corn, pine nuts, and ground coriander–the fourth ingredient should in some way represent Independence Day; regardless of our locale, participants should “create a recipe that celebrates your nation’s emancipation from its previous rulers or form of government or whatever other thing celebrated to honor nationhood.” (Somewhat of a paradoxical idea here in America, but I’ll spare you my treatise on that subject.)

Politics and history aside, the idea of freedom is something I can certainly celebrate. The cliche of course is “free as a bird,” and while flying might represent freedom for some, I have always been a water girl. I can’t remember the time before I couldn’t swim, and there are few instances I can think of when I feel more liberated than when my body is gliding through cold water. Especially in this July heat.

In light of that quirk, I chose fish as my fourth ingredient; yellowfin tuna, to be exact, and I prepared him (or her) for David’s and my celebration of this year’s July 4th.

Fresh tuna is such a great summery food–we like it seared and rare, so it takes almost no time to cook, and the flavor is rich enough to stand alone, but mild enough to combine well with other things. Like, you know, corn, coriander, and pine nuts.

The avocado and corn salsa was alternately tart from the lime juice, spicy from the jalapeno, and buttery-sweet from it’s two main ingredients. To spice it up a little, I flavored pine nuts with one of my favorite seasoning combinations: cumin, chile, and coriander, and topped the salsa with the toasted nuts, which provided a nice crunchy texture.

Tuna and avocado is, to me, a perfect match, and the other flavors enhanced the combination even more. Blue corn tortillas added a patriotic touch–see the star in the picture?–and scooped up what was left of the salsa when the tuna had vanished. All in all, this was a delicious meal that I would definitely make again (and, truth be told, some of my farfetched Paper Chef concoctions do not earn that commendation!)

This month’s competition is being judged by Kevin and last month’s winner, Gabriella, of My Life as a Reluctant Housewife. Check Kevin’s site for a round-up and the winners later in the week.

Stars and Stripes Tuna with Avocado-Corn Salsa
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 t. ground coriander
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. chile powder
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Kosher salt (just a sprinkle)
1/4 t. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 t. ground coriander
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 small tomato, diced
1/2 cup corn kernels, cooked and stripped from the cob, plus extra for serving
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 avocado, diced
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 t. Kosher salt
2 very fresh yellowfin tuna fillets, about 1/2 pound each
1/2 t. olive oil
Blue corn tortilla chips

For the nuts: Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the nuts and spices (coriander, cumin, chile, and cayenne). Toast in the dry skillet for a couple of minutes, until the nuts and spices are fragrant. Add 1/4 t. olive oil (a tiny, tiny dribble, just to allow the spices to stick to the nuts), and stir to coat the nuts. Cook, stirring for another 3-4 minutes and sprinkle with salt. The nuts should be golden brown. Remove them from the skillet and set aside.

For the salsa: Stir together the garlic, 1/4 t. ground coriander, cilantro, tomato, corn, and jalapeno pepper. Add the avocado and lime juice and toss gently. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

For the tuna: Heat 1/2 t. of olive oil in the skillet (the same one you cooked the nuts in) over high until smoking. Add the fillets, and sear on both sides, cooking until your desired doneness (we like ours very rare, so no more than a minute per side for us, but you can cook it longer if you like yours more done).

To plate: Slice the tuna into strips. Arrange the tortilla chips in whatever shape you like (a star for Independence Day, perhaps?), and fan the tuna strips out from the chip bed. Top with avocado salsa and spiced pine nuts. Garnish with extra corn, chips, and cilantro. Our traditional mode of holiday festivities around here usually includes the traditional fancy celebration dinner, and a brunch, for which we forgo both breakfast and lunch,. Especially July 4th, when we can almost always be found watching Wimbledon, brunch suits a lazy holiday quite nicely.

Last year was insanely busy for my family. In order, from youngest to oldest, the four children in our clan graduated from high school and started college, graduated from college and started law school, got married, and finished one graduate program and entered another. All of us except one moved. My parents, after trotting swiftly from one major life event to another, suddenly found themselves with an empty nest.

Needless to say, it has been a year of adjustment for all of us. The hardest thing for David and me is to know how to negotiate holidays, how to see everyone we need to see without completely wearing ourselves out, and how to mesh quality time with people who matter a great deal to us with our new lives in a new, not-so-near place.

So, when my entire family loaded up to come down for a visit for my birthday in June, I was ecstatic. It was the first time all of us (except my sister-in-law who was badly missed!) had gathered in the same place without a million other people to see, places to go, and things to do. It was just us, and I loved it.

I floated the idea of building a deck in our backyard over Christmas holidays, and my sweet father (who is a builder) immediately offered for him and my brothers to come help. One hot, sticky, 14-hour day later, a perfect structure jutted out from my back door, exactly as I had envisioned it.

To celebrate and to say thank you, I spent the day with my mom and sister preparing food. During the day, we made BLTs for lunch with fresh summer tomatoes, salsa to snack on, and supplied plenty of water, Gatorade, and, as the afternoon wore on, beer for the crew. For dinner, we boiled shrimp, roasted potatoes with rosemary, and tossed together a big salad with crusty bread.

My favorite part of the meal, besides the fact that the people I love were sitting at the table with me eating it, was dessert. For as long as I can remember, my mom has made this peach dessert for my birthday. It’s funny now–Cool Whip, Jello, and cream cheese are not ingredients that regularly find their way into my kitchen, but this dessert screams summer to me, and it’s one of my favorite ways to enjoy fresh peaches.

It’s a quintessential southern layer dessert in many ways–buttery crust, creamy sweet middle, and jello and fruit top, but it’s the combination that makes it so divine. The buttery crust crunches with chopped pecans and provides the perfect salty canvas for the sweet peaches and tangy cream cheese.

We ate about half of the 9×12 pyrex dish the night after the deck-building. Over the course of the next week or so, I proceeded to eat the rest of it nearly by myself, for breakfast, mid-morning snack, just like I did when I was a teenager still living in my parents’ house.

Some things I guess we never grow out of. Favorite desserts and the love of family are two that come to mind every time I step outside my back door.
Mom’s Peach Dessert

1 cup flour
1 stick butter, diced
1/2 cup pecans, chopped finely, plus extra for serving
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Cool Whip plus extra for serving
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peach flavored Jell-O
2 T. corn starch
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
4 cups peeled, sliced peaches (about 10-12 whole peaches)

For the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pulse the flour, butter, and pecans together in a food processor until crumbly. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 casserole. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool completely.

For the top: Stir together the Jell-O and corn starch. Bring the water to a boil, and add the Jell-O mixture. Stir until dissolved; add the sugar and continue to cook and stir until the mixture is completely clear. Turn off the heat and set aside.

For the cream cheese layer: Whip the cream cheese, Cool Whip, and powdered sugar until thick and creamy.

To assemble: Once the crust is cool, spread the cream cheese layer evenly on top. Arrange the peach slices in a single layer on top of the cream cheese, and pour the Jell-O mixture over. Cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours, preferably overnight. If you need it to set up in a hurry, the freezer will do it in about 2 hours, sometimes less. To serve, cut into squares and top with a dollop of Cool Whip and a sprinkle of chopped pecans.
If you’re looking for a last-minute Fourth dessert, this one feeds a lot of people. Happy Independence Day, everyone!
If you happen to be looking for me, I’m likely to be in the hammock or the swing pictured below. Dad, Jason, and David, you are my heroes!

What to do when torn between two fruits, ripe and ready for the picking the very same Saturday? Have them both, of course! Throw them together with long, tangy strips of citrus zest, a faint sprinkle of fresh nutmeg, and a bit of brown sugar. Bury them beneath a cloud of butter, oats, and sugar, and bake until the aroma of summer seeps into the sunny corners of your kitchen. Serve warm with coffee, and, if you need a spot of cool, a dollop of vanilla ice cream. I’ll take mine straight, thank you–straight from the bush/tree to my oven and then my mouth, adorned only with fresh slices of peach and a couple of raw berries.

Peaches and blueberries: simultaneously ripe for a reason.

Peach Berry Crisp

About 10 ripe peaches, pitted, peeled, and sliced
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon
1 pint fresh blueberries
1/8 t. grated fresh nutmeg (optional)
3/4 cup brown sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups + 2 T. flour
1/4 t. salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2 sticks butter, cut into small cubes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover completely the bottom of a 9×12 pyrex dish with peach slices (10 medium- to small-sized peaches were enough for me). Sprinkle with the citrus zest (I like it in long strips for this dish, but grated works too), 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 T. of flour, and the grated nutmeg. Add the berries and mix gently together until well-combined (I use my hands.) Make sure that the fruit mixure is in an even layer.

For the topping, you can use a food processor or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Stir together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, salt, and oats. With the mixer (or processor) running, add the cubes of butter until small, coarse crumbles form. Spread this mixture evenly over the top of the fruit. Bake for about an hour; the filling will bubble at the edges, and the top should be light brown and crisp (thus, the name!).

Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa’s Peach and Raspberry Crisp.

This dessert is my contribution to Sweetnicks‘ ARF/5-a-day Tuesdays: blueberries are packed with anti-oxidants, among other fantastic health benefits (which somehow diminishes the amount of butter in this crisp in my mind…)

Before Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi Gulf Coast was known for its pallatial beachfront homes. At the end of one particular drive lined with a towering plot of regal old oaks, gracefully wearing their age in their stature and in the silver locks of Spanish moss dripping from their branches, lay a sprawling white bed and breakfast called Green Oaks.

My first job out of college, as the editor of a small, regional magazine, took me to Green Oaks with my friend and co-worker, Lori, many summers ago. For a special issue on the Coast, we stayed for a few days, attending the blessing of the fleet, a tradition that marks the beginning of shrimping season, wandering around the maritime museum, and eating and photographing some fabulous food. The afternoon we first arrived, after we’d made our way up the winding front stairs, the hostess showed us to our room and then on to the front porch, where aging rocking chairs, a lazy yellow cat named Bill Clinton, and a tray of mint juleps and cucumber sandwiches awaited.

Truth be told, I could have spent the next several days in that rocking chair, listening to the ocean and taking in the warm, salty breeze. I recently opened the issue of the magazine that resulted from that trip, and I could almost smell the heavy, sea-tinged air.
Looking through those stories and photographs now was so strange–like reading about somewhere far away–because so much of what we experienced is no longer there.

My favorite meal we ate was the breakfast the hostess of Green Oaks prepared the morning we were leaving: a soupy bed of red pepper cream sauce, a crispy fried green tomato, and a soft, poached egg, topped with a smattering of fresh, lump crabmeat.

For Memorial Day weekend this year, I tried to recreate that memorable Green Oaks breakfast.

The lovely Green Oaks and its surrounding community may have to be rebuilt from the ground up, but the rich culinary heritage of that coastal region remains. The next time you make crab cakes, I urge you to reserve a couple of tablespoons of the crab meat and try this dish. If you close your eyes really tightly and take a deep breath, you might just be able to smell the salty Gulf air. And if not, I promise you’ll be able to taste it.

Eggs Green Oaks

For the fried green tomatoes:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup corn meal
1 T. Tony Chacheres (or other Cajun seasoning)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
Buttermilk, to soak the tomatoes
3 green tomatoes
1 cup canola oil
Slice the tomatoes into thick rounds. Salt and pepper; soak in the buttermilk while you prepare the batter and the oil. Mix the flour, corn meal, and the seasoning on a plate. Whisk together the milk and eggs. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot (and not before! A drop of water should sizzle immediately), dip the tomato slices in the egg-milk mixture and then dredge in the seasoned flour. Fry until golden brown, about 5-7 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels and keep warm.

For the spicy cream sauce:
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped finely
1/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
Juice of 1 lemon
2 T. half and half
1/4 cup fresh, lump crab meat
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low. Add the pepper and onion and cook until soft, about 6-8 minutes. Season with the seasoned salt, and add the lemon juice and cream. Cook until all is combined; cover and keep warm. Add the crab meat and stir gently, just before serving. You want it to just be warm.

For the eggs:
1 egg per person
Olive oil
You can poach the eggs if you prefer; I fried them for my husband, who loves them that way. Heat about a half-inch of olive oil in a skillet. Break the egg into the skillet (you can use a cookie cutter if you want it to be a particular shape, as I did; just make sure you grease the sides of the cookie cutter!). Spoon the hot oil on top of the egg as it fries; cook until the white begins to congeal, or until it reaches your desired doneness. To assemble: Spoon some cream sauce onto each plate, reserving the crab meat. Place two slices of fried green tomato in the center and top with an egg. Spoon the rest of the cream sauce over the egg and the tomatoes and scatter the crab meat over the plate. Garnish with paprika if you prefer. Eat immediately.

This recipe was inspired by Jennifer Diaz, former owner of Green Oaks bed and breakfast.

A couple of summers ago, my parents travelled to Napa with some good friends who work for Viking. They got to stay in this fabulous winery, and one night, a chef stopped by to prepare dinner for them and give them a cooking lesson. Ever since that trip, my dad has been making these crab cakes whenever we all get together, and I never get tired of them.

I’m sure every cook who has ever lived near an ocean (and probably many who haven’t) has her own interpretation of this classic preparation of fresh crab. I have modified the original chef’s recipe significantly (which, you might have noticed, is extremely common in my kitchen) based on what I had, what I wanted to spend money on, and what sounded good to me. The original recipe calls for equal parts shrimp, scallops, salmon, and crab, but I opted to prepare them with only crab, and I altered the amounts of almost everything else. I also omitted a called-for red bell pepper because I forgot to buy it at the grocery store (oops!)

Crab cakes are hard to mess up, I think, as long as you keep them simple. In my opinion, fresh crab should be the only thing that you really taste when you put a bite into your mouth; everything else is either for binding purposes or to enhance the crab’s flavor. For that reason, the best crabmeat you can afford to buy will make a huge difference in how your cakes turn out.

Some food is simply meant to be savored, eaten slowly and thoughtfully, each bite given proper attention. Crab cakes, for me, are one of those foods. Once the crisp exterior yields its soft goodness, each bite melts on the tongue, begging to be chewed as slowly as possible. I generally abide by the crab cake’s wishes and take my sweet time with every bite.
When I made these a few weeks ago, we had some friends over, and the only one left to photograph was the one you see above. (I wanted to take a picture of a mound of them on a plate, but I would feel rude about interrupting a dinner party to photograph the food.) They were clearly a hit; none of us said much during the actual eating of the food, and we are all talkative people. Savoring would be an appropriate word to describe our eating experience. My sweet friend Katherine, when we were finished, said it was one of the best meal’s she’d eaten in a long time.

The chef in Napa served the cakes over a bed of guacamole, and while that pairing doesn’t sound natural to me, everyone at our dinner agreed that it worked quite well. The texture and mellow flavor of the avocados pairs nicely with the soft, mild crabmeat, and the kick of the jalapeno brings out the cake’s spiciness.

With a simple salad and some crisp white wine, it made for one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long time too. Don’t you love when that happens in your own kitchen?

Crab Cakes and Guacamole

For the crab cakes:
1 pound fresh, lump crabmeat
1/4 cup mayonnaise (preferably homemade)
1 egg, beaten
2 green onions, green and white parts, minced
1 t. dry mustard
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
1/4 t. white pepper
1/2 t. Kosher salt
2 cups Panko (Japanese bread crumbs), divided
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter

Pick through the crabmeat to remove any loose shells; place in a large bowl. Add the mayonnaise, egg, green onions, dry mustard, peppers, and salt, and lightly fold together, being careful not to break up the crabmeat too much. Add 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs and fold into the crabmeat mixture. Refrigerate for at least a half an hour.

Heat the olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat. Pour the remaining bread crumbs onto a plate. Form the crab mixture into round patties, and coat with bread crumbs. Fry in the hot oil/butter for about 2-3 minutes per side, or until the coating is crisp and brown. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels to drain any excess oil.

For the guacamole:
2 ripe avocadoes, sliced into chunks
Juice of 1 lemon
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 small Roma tomato, small-diced
2 T. minced red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 t. Kosher salt
1/2 t. cracked black pepper

Sprinkle the avocado slices with the juice of half of the lemon and a palmful of Kosher salt. Mix the tomato, red onion, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Add the avocado and mash coarsely with a fork. Sprinkle with the remaining lemon juice and combine with the fork.

To serve: Place a mound of guacamole on the center of a plate. Top with 2 crab cakes and a lemon wedge.

Notes: My friend Mica requested a crab cake recipe without mayonnaise. Although I don’t think the mayo in this recipe is detectable–used only to bind the cakes together–does anyone know of another binding agent that would work for mayo-haters? Sorry, Mica, I didn’t remember that this recipe called for your most hated condiment

Two things I have bought every week at the farmer’s market for the past few weeks: corn and shrimp. Both have a delicately sweet flavor that reminds me of summer, so the combination is a natural one in my mind.

Shrimp and corn soup as prepared in restaurants around here is usually either roux-based, dark and heavy, or cream-based, light in flavor but not in substance; both versions are a bit too hearty for this sultry summer heat.

This shrimp and corn soup is light and flavorful, packed with the flavors of the two featured ingredients and not much else, which, for this simple girl, is how soup should be. The broth I made from shrimp stock in my freezer, boiled with the leftover corn cobs, but you can make vegetable stock with the corn and water if you don’t have any shrimp stock on hand or if you’re pressed for time.

This soup is a good dish to make on a lazy summer afternoon–it takes a bit of time, but not much cooking really; most of the time you can spend sipping lemonade and watching the stock simmer. I served it with a green salad and Rosemary Olive Oil bread (Rorie’s recipe, which I altered by reducing the sugar to 1/2 cup and substituting pine nuts for the walnuts–it was fabulous!)

Summer Shrimp and Corn Soup

3 ears corn
1/3 cup milk
2-3 cups shrimp stock (or water)
1 T. olive oil
1/2 large sweet yellow onion
1 clove garlic
2 small new potatoes, small-diced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 lb. of small to medium shrimp, shelled
Fresh basil leaves, for garnish

Cut the kernels for the corn cobs and set aside.
In a large pot, combine the shrimp stock with the trimmings from the onion and the corn cobs. Simmer for about 45 minutes.

In a small saucepan, cover the corn kernels with the milk and heat over medium until the milk boils; reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil over medium to medium-low heat; add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent but not brown, about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, then cover with stock. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Adjust seasonings and add the shrimp. Cook the soup for another 5 minutes, or until the shrimp are pink and opaque. Serve topped with chopped fresh basil. Serves 4 as an entree, 6-8 as a starter.

Okay, so not only did the gnocchi not turn out so well,–a doughy, sticky mess–but also, last Friday when I was supposed to make it, it was absolutely gorgeous outside, and David and were both home early. So instead of chaining myself to the kitchen, I made some impromptu picnic food and headed to the park with my husband. In lieu of describing my gnocchi disaster (which I hope to rectify soon, just not that night), I thought I’d share this idea because it turned out to be so yummy. A couple of caveats: 1. Don’t take this to a fancy dinner party; it is terribly messy. 2. Do not eat it if you are afraid to use your hands; otherwise you may never get any cheese in your mouth.

Alright, with that said, here’s what I did. We had ball of fresh mozzarella that I’d been meaning to use all week, a tomato from the farmer’s market, leftover phyllo from the spinach pie, and a delicious abundance of basil in my backyard. So…I quickly whipped up some pesto, rolled the mozzarella in it, and wrapped the whole thing in phyllo sheets, brushed with butter. While it was baking (at 375 degrees), I sliced the tomato and tossed it with a little bit of olive oil, a clove of crushed garlic, and a lot of Kosher salt. I let the phyllo-wrapped cheese bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

Now, granted, if you don’t like getting your hands dirty, this is not the picnic food for you. We used a knife to slice the cheese into what turned out to be gobs of flaky phyllo and gooey pesto-cheese, and piled the gobs on top of the tomato slices. Pesto oil and tomato juice dripped everywhere, we both had green stains on our hands and mouths, but we also had plenty of napkins (and red wine), and it really was so delicious. I’m sure there’s a less messy way to combine all of these flavors, but for this late afternoon picnic, this method turned out just fine.

On this beautiful Friday, I’d like to wish a happy birthday to my brother-in-law. I hope it’s this pretty in LA, Jon!

This is my favorite summer pasta dish. Another Brick-Oven knock-off, this pasta turns up in my kitchen many times over the course of the summer. A couple of weeks ago, the vendor at the Market who sold me these tomatoes told me that would be his last crop until the fall ones came in. In honor of the last summer tomatoes, I decided to fix them in the way I feel best captures their pure flavor. If you can still get your hands on some summer tomatoes, please make this pasta before the season leaves for good. I do wish it would take some of this dreadful humid heat with it when it goes…a breath of fall air would do me some good.

FRESH TOMATOES AND BASIL

1/2 pound angel hair pasta

1 T. butter

2 T. olive oil

6-8 cloves of fresh garlic, sliced thinly

2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes chopped

1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn

Kosher salt

Cracked pepper

Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta until tender and drain. Toss with the butter and set aside. In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat, until it shimmers. Add the garlic, and cook until it just begins to turn golden, but be careful not to let it burn. Add the tomatoes all at once and coat with the garlicky oil. Salt and pepper well. Lower the heat to medium-low, and cook until the tomatoes’ skins are beginning to shrivel (they should be soft but not mushy). Add half of the basil until just wilted. Pile each plate with a mound of the pasta. Pour the tomatoes on top, making sure to get plenty of the liquid. Top with extra basil leaves and grated Parmesan cheese. Serve with crusty bread (I cook mine right in the skillet after the tomatoes are done; it soaks up the leftover juices and absorbs that garlicky flavor). And, if you are one of those must-have-meat people (or if you cook for one), grilled shrimp or chicken works well in this dish. A quick, easy, and so delicious meal!